Dear Governor Purdue, I strongly urge you to veto Senate Bill 8, the bill lifting NC’s cap on charter schools in its current form. I am concerned that the bill as it currently stands diverts sorely needed funds from North Carolina’s public schools with little oversight as to the use of those funds, and creates a separate educational system in this state which is not accessible to all of our students. The bill currently: 1. Requires public school districts to share program funds with charter schools, even when the charters do not participate in the programs for which the funds are intended (for example, free and reduced lunch funds), or when the programs are self-contained and funded by the public schools. This means that public school students paying, for example, for lost textbooks or activity buses for field trips will have to pay a surcharge in order to both pay for the service or item and the money that will go to the charters. It also means that any private money that goes into particular schools, from bake sales, donations, athletics boosters, PTA grants etc, would have to be split with the charters. The charters, however, have no reciprocal obligation to the public schools under this bill. 2. Does not require that charter schools provide transportation and free/reduced lunch facilities, so that low income children can attend. As it stands, these children are de facto excluded from charter schools, potentially creating a state funded school system segregated by socioeconomic status. . 3. Removes the minimum number of students which must be served by a charter school (the minimum was formerly set at 65). This provision removes funding from the already struggling public school system by allowing homeschooling parents to establish “charter” schools in order to teach their own children 4. Does not contain a mechanism to ensure that when a student is “returned” to the public school system, the funding returns with the student, or that the test scores of these students count against the returning school for any period of time. The bill continues to incentivize charter schools to “push out” low scoring students during testing season, thus evading accountability and artificially raising their test scores in a way public schools cannot. 5.Removes charter schools from the jurisdiction of the State Board of Education, and creates an independent Charter Commission, which would oversee charter schools and grant charters. The Charter Commission which this bill creates is composed almost entirely of charter school parents and faculty. There is little incentive for the new Commission to provide rigorous oversight for new charter schools, or to collaborate with the State Board of Education to determine whether new charters are necessary or can be supported in particular districts. As North Carolinians and taxpayers, we all have a constitutional responsibility to provide for a quality and equal education for every child in this state. The current bill not only does not further that goal, it pushes us farther away from it. If the charter cap is lifted, it needs to be done in a manner which ensures education, accountability and access for all children in the state. Please veto this bill unless and until the inequities it creates are addressed.